Jenson Seed EIS Fund - Clubfinance

28 Jenson Seed EIS FundAbout the Fund Manager and Strategic Adviser 294. ABOUT THE FUND MANAGER ANDTHE STRATEGIC ADVISER4.1 Foresight Group LLPForesight will be the Fund Manager of the Fundwith exclusive responsibility for deciding uponthe Investment strategy and each individualinvestment. Although Jenson is the appointedrepresentative in relation to the Fund and isthe strategic adviser, the final decision to investor divest in each Investment will be made byForesight. Foresight manages private equityinvestments in a wide variety of sectors. It hassuccessfully invested in unquoted companiesin the UK, continental Europe and the USAand has realised more than 50 investments. Itcurrently manages over £400 million of equityinvestments and over £700 million in totalassets including those owned by third parties.Foresight is authorised to act as an investmentfund manager by the UK Financial ServicesAuthority (“FSA”) and its FSA registrationnumber is 198020.The Foresight TeamBernard Fairman – Bernard is the chairman ofForesight and is responsible for group businessdevelopment, strategy and administration,as well as having final responsibility for allsignificant investment decisions made onbehalf of funds managed by the Foresight.Over the past 25 years he has led Foresightdevelopment into a business that nowmanages over £400 million with over 40 staffin the UK and Italy, and in 1997 launchedthe best ever performing VCT. For ten yearshe was a director of smartcard innovatorGemplus and was involved in its growth fromstart-up to over $1 billion of annual revenues.Jamie Richards – Jamie is a CharteredAccountant and has 20 years’ experiencespanning fund management, banking andcorporate recovery. Since joining Foresightin 2000, he has led a number of venture,cleantech and renewable infrastructureinvestments. More recently he has led newproduct development and market entryin the solar and wider infrastructure sectorincluding secondary PPP/PFI traditionalinfrastructure projects. Before Foresight, heworked at PWC, Citibank and Macquarie,both in London and Sydney.Peter English – has been involved in investingsince 1982. He is an engineer with 10 years’experience in the semiconductor industry, atGEC Semiconductors and Nortel. He movedinto the venture capital sector with 3i Venturesin 1982 and cofounded Foresight in 1984.4.2 The Jenson GroupJenson will be the strategic and operationaladviser to the Fund Manager in respectof the Fund. Jenson will be responsible fororiginating sufficient and suitable investmentopportunities, supporting the Fund Managerin negotiating with and monitoring theprogress of Investee Companies andproviding advisory, management andsupport services to Investee Companies.Jenson Solutions, a designated memberof Jenson LLP, was set-up in 2001 by PaulJenkinson, an experienced CharteredAccountant, corporate financier andfinance director. Paul started fund raising forhigh growth companies in 1995 and sincethen has helped raise funding for numerouscompanies. Since 2001 the partners ofJenson Solutions have provided numerouscompanies with financial and operationalsupport to help them grow and develop.Jenson Solutions have a track record ofworking with Foresight on its investmentportfolio. An example of this prior relationshipis with one of Foresight’s investments: in2002 AppDNA (called Camwood at thetime) had lost its main client representinga substantial part of its turnover andJenson Solutions went in to provide financedirector services with a view to trying tosave the business. In 2003, Foresight madean investment in the restructured but stillloss making company and in 2011 sold itsinvestment of £0.77 million for £25 million –a return of 32 times and an IRR of 240%.Jenson partners have also invested inand co-founded a number of businessesthemselves and most recently sold abusiness they co-founded in 2007 to a largeUS Nasdaq quoted company. A numberof Jenson Solutions partners have trainedas accountants with one of the Big Fouraccounting firms and have then movedinto corporate finance, restructuring, privateequity or mergers and acquisitions beforefinally moving into industry as financedirectors of high growth companies. JensonSolutions is regulated by the Institute ofChartered Accountants in England & Walesfor a range of investment business activities.The Jenson partner backgrounds aredetailed below. All are experiencedaccountants with considerable hands oncommercial involvement with a broad rangeof SME businesses. Within this partnershipteam however, there is a useful mix ofadditional specialisms that can be utilisedto help the Fund Manager and InvesteeCompanies as summarised as follows:• Three or more partners with considerableventure capital and private equityexperience to help identify and evaluatebusiness plans and opportunities generally;• Three or more partners with considerablefinancial modelling, systems and outsourcingexperience to help Investee Companiesestablish or expand the operating andaccounting systems and controls;